While Samhain is a celebration of life, death and re-birth, it is also described by some as a ‘day out of time’, when the universe melds back to primordial chaos before being re-birthed with new order. Two of these poems – frozen and [the forthcoming] Desolated Summerland — were written during a time when I — as well as my spirituality — were undergoing a parallel transformation: a complete reconstruction of everything I thought I had knew about my identities. The third [forthcoming] piece – beyond the veil – was written most recently following the death of one of my amphibian darlings.
Both frozen and Desolated Summerland focus on the impact of tragedies, and are explorations on death and rebirth, as well as how two people deal with loss and sorrow as the veils between the worlds becomes thinner on this spirit night. In frozen, a strong sense of death preoccupies the woman’s mind and she sacrifices part of herself in a ritualised ‘letting go’ and remembrance of a lover.
–
frozen
silver bullets pierce the moon
crimson skies flood the earth
infected death rapes her lover
and she kisses her one last time
over painted eyes and charcoal lips
she whispers her requiem as
the scythe echoes in Hades eyes
caught between shattered darkness
sweet songs from crows
lullaby her children into reveries
of bleeding life
–
Michelle Kopp
is an overworked graduate student and part-time writer in Saskatchewan, Canada. She resides with a collection of zoo animals and the memories of loved ones gone. She’s currently practising a type of Reconstructionism, which is not really reconstructionism-by-definition. Her work has recently appeared in The Diverse Arts Project and Yesteryear Fiction, and has pieces forthcoming in Two Hawks Quarterly and Leaves of Ink.
hyacinth noir 